INNOVACC is composed by a group of companies and institutions that come together voluntarily and freely to get, nonprofit, a purpose of general or particular interest with the desire to share their knowledge, activities and / or financial resources. The association is autonomous, has its own personality and its internal organization and operation must be democratic, with full respect for pluralism.
INNOVACC is composed by a group of companies and institutions that come together voluntarily and freely to get, nonprofit, a purpose of general or particular interest with the desire to share their knowledge, activities and / or financial resources. The association is autonomous, has its own personality and its internal organization and operation must be democratic, with full respect for pluralism.
INNOVACC is the Catalan pork sector cluster. The Catalan Association of Innovation of the Pork Sector “INNOVACC” was formally established on March 7, 2008, and since then, it has grown and has been consolidating itself as a cluster in this sector throughout Catalonia. It currently has 107 associates, 93 companies -75 of which are SMEs- and 14 institutions. The associated companies have a total turnover of more than 5,700 million euros and more than 18,800 workers. The entity groups the entire value chain in the sector (livestock, slaughterhouses, cutting plants, meat processors, machinery manufacturers, logistics services, additive manufacturers, waste treatment and by-product valorization, engineering, consulting, health laboratories and hygiene solutions …), as well as institutions related to the sector located around the companies (universities, chambers of commerce, research centers, professional associations …). The main objective of the cluster is to strengthen business competitiveness through innovation and cooperation.
INNOVACC has extensive experience in managing innovative collaborative projects, in terms of monitoring their execution and in the processing of public aid. Since its creation, year after year, it has promoted and managed more than a hundred projects, many of which have come from the cluster. INNOVACC works with lines commonly used as support for collaborative R&D projects which are: DARP-GO, DAAM-R&D promotion. DAAM-innovative pilot projects, MINCOTUR-AEIs, ACCIÓ-IRC, RIS3CAT-Communities, RIS3CAT-PECT, 7 PM-R4SME, H2020-SME instrument, H2020 calls, etc.
INNOVACC’s main activity is the promotion and support of the development of strategic COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS in the pig meat sector, with the participation of its associates. All INNOVACC projects are collaborative, with a minimum of two members. Many of these projects have emerged and worked within the cluster itself, but some are projects developed with other European clusters.
The strategic challenges defined in the Strategic Plan of the cluster are:
- “Open the doors”, be more transparent
- “Dialogue with the consumer”
- Offering “healthier products”
- New export opportunities to overcrowded countries
- Products with high added value
- Improve the quality of high volume products
- Increase sustainability, reduce carbon footprint and water footprint
- Avoid risk of food crises, increase product life, etc.
- Better knowledge for the sector
- Extension of internationalization
- Improve profit margins
- Offering more functional products
Experiences that INNOVACC can bring to the project: to plan future strategies, to promote innovation, to promote the technologic transfer, to promote the training, advice, to establish external strategic relationships, to foster cooperation, to define policies and actions of common interest.
Key role(s) in the project
In AccelWater project, INNOVACC will contribute to the replicability of business models and its adaptability based on the technologies implemented in the meat sector (WP9).
In addition, INNOVACC will support the tasks of communication and dissemination of the obtained results (WP10). INNOVACC will send digital publications periodically and will be the organizer of different conferences in Spain to disseminate the project to the European meat sector.